House Of Venus
by SoulSurvivor
Summary: A desperate wizards failed gamble causes two worlds to collide and neither will be the same.
1. Prolouge

House Of Venus

* * *

When dealing with demons, few things ever go as expected...

When Beryl made her bid for power at the height of the Silver Millenium, she had expected to win. When things had not gone as planned, she had accepted the aid of the demon Metallia, fully expecting to sit on the silver throne with Endemion by her side. What she had not expected was to be possesed by a fraction of the demons essence and spend her time screaming in her own mind as the kingdom she coveted was reduced to ruin and the man she coveted was struck dead by her own hand.

To add insult to injury, Queen Serenity did not even have the decency to end her suffering with a clean death. No, her thrice damned mercifulness decided that imprisoning her along with her demonic hitchhiker was a better option, locking her in a hellish sub dimension for what was supposed to be all eternity.

Also, when one makes pacts or deals, one should not only examine the fine print, but also get a good look at who or what one is dealing with...

Take, for example, when a certain wizard by the name of Augustus Rookwood, on the run after being outed as a Death Eater by the traitor Karkaroff, decided to enlist demonic aide from an entity he knew as Danburite. He had many expectations, ranging from simple escape to the death of his enemies, most especialy the afore mentioned traitor. Being a wizard, and an Unspeakable at that, he took many precautions, as he was well aware of the treacherous nature of demonkind.

What he did not expect however, was the arrival of a magically enhanced human as opposed to the demon he believed he had summoned. Even less expected was said humans ability to ignore and worse, erase his anti demon wards. While bad, this was not the worst part of the deal. No, that would be the included youma, who drained him dry and left his withered husk in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of muggle London.

The Aurors that finally found it were quite puzzled to say the least.

The biggest problem with demons and their tainted allies is that they break rules, not just the laws of man either, but other higher laws as well. In this case, Rookwoods mistake caused a breach in the laws of time. Unbeknownst to him, and fortunately for the world in general, Time has an overworked and generally underappreciated guardian.

Said guardian was less than thrilled to have her long laid plans disrupted by a wizards desperate foolishness and made certain adjustments to compensate... Only to find that those adjustments threw things even further out of synch.

Several thousand minute tweaks, two bottles of Ogdens Finest and many many asprin later, Setsuna Meiu, also known as Sailor pluto finally settled down for a well deserved nap.

* * *

It is said that there is more to the world than meets the eye, an old saying to be true, but an accurate one nonetheless. In this case however, it could be said that there is more in a London fog than one would expect. Take for example the white cat, seemingly enraptured by its own reflection in a shop window, oblivious to the world around it, apparently trapped in a bout of feline narcicism.

Or at least that is how things appear at first glance... On closer inspection on would note the felines occasional attempts to get a clearer view of something beyond the glass, if one listened one would hear its occasional growl of frustration. However, if one listened even more closely, one could also hear the faint sounds of human violence from inside the selfsame shop.

Artemis (for this was the cat's name), was feeling just a tad bit sorry for himself. While some of this could be attributed to his current situation, ie. stuck outside while his charge went toe to toe with local members of the criminal underworld, most of his current funk was due to the circumstances surrounding his charge herself.

If one were to be totally honest, it was not really his fault, there truly was no way he could have known at the time. When his stasis capsule opened after far to long, he truly was not himself. The capsules were meant for medical emergencies, meant to be used for weeks at most, certainly not the millenia he had apparently slept. Thus the cryo-sickness, along with the disorientation that came with it lasted for weeks as opposed to the hours that were mentioned in the documentation. Added to that was Boss's rather heavy handed use of geas spells to get him up and moving as opposed to the miserable puddy-pile he had been when the tube spit him out.

With these factors in mind, sick, disoriented and not fully aware of his surrounding, with Boss's order to find and **Activate The Guardian **pounding in his head, it is quite understandable that he may have overlooked certain small but ultimately VERY important details when he finally located his charge and gave her the henshin pen. If one could ignore the missed detail, one would say that his charge was perfect for her post. She was brave, sometimes to the point of recklessness and eager to begin her life as a guardian of justice (her words). She went out on patrol every night, hunting down the criminals who had accepted Danburite's promises of power. She even trained her abilities without complaint.

All in all she was everything that a guardian should be aside from that one tiny little detail. A detail that had only become apparent to his cryo addled mind a few short days ago. A detail that he was sure would condemn him to one of the nastier planes of hell when it came time to pay the piper.

Serenity help him, he'd placed a 9 year old child on the front lines.


	2. And so it begins

Insert standard Disclaimer here.

* * *

Danburite was less than pleased. When he had first been contacted by the mage Rookwood, he'd had a plan. Simply feed the fool a little power, give him a couple of rituals and let him do the work of opening a portal.

Then the fool had panicked and it had all gone to pot. In a fit of desperation, Rookwood had modified the ritual and enacted it with only a fraction of the power required, so instead of opening a portal, it had summoned Danburite instead. He'd barely had the time and presence of mind to grab a nearby soldier youma as backup before he was dragged thru the ether and dumped into a warding circle here in London.

Fortunately for him, and not so much for Mr. Rookwood, the wards were keyed to demonic entities and not empowered humans like himself. Still, even draining the idiot dry had barely recouped the energy he had lost keeping himself from being torn apart in transition.

In the 8 years that had gone by since then, he had slowly but surely built up his power base here. His single soldier provided the muscle he needed to integrate himself into the local criminal underworld, and his empowered servants ran the _businesses, _whorehouses, gambling dens, and such, each with carefully designed arrays etched into the floors and walls, siphoning off minute amounts of life energy, every little bit of which was stored away against the day he could make his move.

He was now so close he could almost taste it, less than a year away from having the power required to open a small portal and get the infiltrators he so desperately needed. While the soldier he grabbed was good for intimidation and defense, it lacked the ability to blend in with the populace which made it useless for energy draining operations. Infiltrators on the other hand could assume human form and had the ability to channel far greater amounts of power than his current arrays.

Once he had infiltrators in place, it would only be a matter of weeks before he had the ability to create a full self sustaining portal Beryl could use to bring her troops thru en masse. When that day came, then his queen would see his true worth, then she would see that she had been focusing her attention in the wrong direction. Finally she would see him.

Oh, how he longed to see the looks on their faces, Beyrl's 4 great generals, upstaged by a simple field commander. All of their plans were focused on opening the portal on the south of the planet, a portal that would likely take them several more years to breach while he was less than a year from enabling a full scale invasion all on his own.

How he looked forward to rubbing their noses in it, after millenia of listening to them throw their weight around, as if being former bodyguards to earth royalty made them better than everyone else. Unlike those four pousers, he had not been born to rank and title. No, he had worked his way thru the ranks, he had earned his commission on the field of battle, not been given it as a political favor. And while he had his reasons for betraying that commission, they were his own and had nothing to do with some pansy prince's love life.

And now, it was all going wrong again.

Someone out there was aware of him it seemed, as half a dozen of his fronts had been silenced in the space of 2 weeks. Half a dozen operations shut down, their meticulously designed harvesting arrays destroyed and his minions imprisoned by local authorities. The last week had been spent wasting precious energy on divination rituals in an attempt to discern who was responsible or predict the next target, with no results whatsoever.

At this rate, if something was not done, he would be right back where he started, and those four bastards would steal his show... this, he decided, could not be allowed.

He had one option left, one he had been reluctant to use as it might bring unwanted attention to himself and his operations. The local magical community had a criminal element of its own, and his one agent among them had promised him access to some of their number that would not be missed... For a price of course. Enough properly drained magicals, should they be sufficiently powerful, could provide him with the energy of hundreds of normal humans and reduce the time required to open his first portal to mere days instead of the months he had anticipated. His agent had offered bring him one this very evening, and this time, he would take the offer and see where it led.

It was a risk, but with great risk came great rewards, fortune favored the bold and all that rot. Besides, the way things were going he was fast running out of other options.

* * *

AN: I do apologize for the short chapters but this scene just did not seem to fit anywhere else.


	3. The Meeting

Insert Standard Disclaimer Here

* * *

Oddly enough, Danburites estimate of his losses was not quite correct. At that particular moment, front number seven, this one an illegal gambling den in the back room of a rather seedy pub, was in the process of being trashed.

Minako Aino was having a blast. While magically enhanced to be stronger and more durable than your average street thug, the men guarding this place were no match for her speed and power. Dodging around a clumsy attempt to grab her she folded the offender over her fist as she let her mind wander a bit, her concern for her sidekick taking more of her attention than the lowlives she was thrashing.

When Artie (how he hated that nickname!) came to her a few weeks ago with a magic pen and tales of her destiny as a magical hero, he had given her more than just super powers. Her life was at an all time low at that time, still reeling from the loss of all her freinds back in tokyo, dealing with a new school and teachers was bad enough. What the grownups didnt understand to was that dealing with the other kids was worse. To them she was the funny looking one, the girl with the bad english who could barely read the schoolbooks and was always last in class. The grownups didnt have to listen to the names, the taunts and they didnt understand how it felt when no one would play with her.

Then Artie came. A talking cat was cool, but what he talked of, and what he gave her was even cooler. Suddenly, the taunts and jibes didnt mean anything really, what were the opinions of a bunch of school kids to a real live superhero? The lack of playmates went from a burden to a boon overnight as she didnt have to worry about one stumbling on her secret. As for being last in class? Even that helped as she spent a lot of nights patrolling late, and when sleepy enough, school desks could actually be quite comfy.

But Atrtie was different lately, he seemed upset about something and for the life of her she could not figure out what. He had even been trying to get her to patrol less, even tho she was making short work of these places that boss kept sending her to.

As another thug was sent into and partly thru a wall, conveniently destroying the harvesting runes inscribed within (there was a reason Boss told her to do as much property damage as she could), she reflected on when the change had started, just a few days ago actually. She had woken up to find Artie on her chest, staring at her with the oddest expression on his face. For most of that day he had been strangely quiet, then out of nowhere, he had aske how old she was. When she told him, he had taken off and did not come till the next morning. Since then, he refused to look her in the eye, and spent a great deal of time muttering to himself when he thought she couldn't hear him.

What did it matter how old she was? She was 9, just a few more years till she was a teenager, its not like she was a little kid or something, if she were 5 or 6 she could see Arties problem, but she was practically an adult if you squinted real hard...

Her ruminations were interrupted by the the insistent beeping of her transformation pen, letting her know that Boss wanted to talk to her. Unfortunately this distracted her just enough to miss the wall she was aiming the latest thug at. Instead, he had to go flying thru the front door... the plate glass door... ouchie... Still, this meant that the bobbies would be here soon so her fun was now at an end. Mildly peeved she darted out the remains of the door, both gathering up her sidekick and using the groaning thug as a launch pad to get to the rooftops and out of sight of meddling, albeit well intentioned, peace officers. Whatever Boss's message was, it had better be good.

* * *

Lucius Malfoy was not an easy man to frighten. Having dealt with Voldemorts rages, having spent more time than he cared to recall on the reciving end of the Dark Lords wand for some imagined mistake or other, he honestly believed that there was little else in this world that could frighten him.

Then he was grabbed while walking with his son in Diagon Alley, his last conscious memory was of something sharp jabbing the back of his neck. Now, he was tied to a chair in a dusty warehouse, to his left he could see his son, Draco, similarly restrained. While worrisome, this was not cause for the fear that was settling in his gut, neither were the muggle thugs, those simply annoyed him.

No, the fear that he had normally reserved for his former master was now the sole property of the thing in the corner. He called it a thing as he had no other word for the beast. It was vaguely female tho he was not sure how he drew that conclusion, about 8 feet tall with an assortment of claws teeth and tentacles that would have placed it quite high on the ministry's list of dark and dangerous creatures. What made it worse still was the dull light of self awareness in its eyes.

He was looking at a Demon.

In all his years of dark magic, at his worst in the service of the dark lord, he had never contemplated summoning one of those monstrosities, even the Dark Lord himself had never hinted at trying that. And now here he was, facing one that muggles had apparently summoned. This was well and truly beyond Not Good.

"Ya look like yer havin a bad day there, Malfoy."

The familiar voice that greeted him belonged to the last person he expected to see in these circumstances, tho to be honest, it was not all that high on the list of voices that he WANTED to hear either. The stench of sweat and stale tobacco that wafted from the mans ratty brown robes assaulted his nostrils as he took in his unshaven face and crooked rotting teeth.

"Fletcher.", he sneered at the poor excuse for a wizard, "what is the meaning of this?"

Mundungus Fletcher, part time wizard and full time thief, returned the sneer with interest. "What this is, Mr. Malfoy, is payback, pure and simple. You and your drinking buddies thought you could do whatever you pleased, throw a few galleons at the ministry and walk away scott free? No, Mr. Malfoy, not tonight, not on my watch you don't. As for your sprog, well while it wern't my intention to grab him, it just means he dont get to grow up to be death eater scum like his daddy."

"Demons Fletcher? Even the Dark Lord never went down that road... Are you that obsessed with petty revenge that you would sell your soul?"

The thieves laugh caught Lucius off guard. "Please! Dont flatter yourself. It ain't no demon, boss calls it a youma whatever the hell that is, 'sides, it is not what you need to worry about, all that thing is is muscle. Mr Danburite on the other hand..." he trailed off as he noticed something out of Lucius's line of sight, "Speak o' the devil and he shall appear... Evenin' guvna, got yer test subjects right here"

The last was addressed to a well dressed, almost effeminate man who had apparently just arrived. Tall and slim, he wore expensive muggle clothing and platinum blond hair that actually gave him a passing resemblance to a Malfoy. The resemblance ended with the eyes tho... While Lucius's eyes could reflect an interesting amount of disdain, contempt or even cruelty depending on his mood, this mans eyes more reminded him of his former employer. Driven, and tho he would never admit it out loud, not even now almost 8 years after the mans death, quite mad.

The mans voice, a pleasant tenor, seemed almost inhuman when paired with the utter lack of humanity in the mans eyes. "Well Mr. Fletcher, it seems you were able to deliver after all. No complications then, no one saw them taken?"

It was obvious that even Dung's firewhisky addled brain registered his employer as a threat, the mans voice shook a bit as he replied. "N... no sir Mr Danburite sir, 'twer no trouble at all. A quick notice me not as they were snatched and no one was the wiser. Even managed to get yeh a two fer one deal while I were at it." The man licked suddenly dry lips as he gathered up Lucius's walking stick from where it had been leaning on a crate. "If'n it's all the same to ya guv'na, I'll leave you to this then, I've got some business to attend to in Knockturn ya see..."

"Why, Mr Fletcher, you went thru all this trouble to bring me a man you hate, surely you want to watch the final act? Have a seat Mr Fletcher... I insist."

While there was no visible change in the mans posture, nor a notable change in the timbre of his voice, the last two words carried a level of menace that froze the thief in his tracks. "O..of course Mr Danburite, I'd be happy to." Now sweating profusely, he grabbed one of the uncomfortable metal chairs that littered the floor and dropped heavily into it, his face slowly starting to show a hint of worry.

"Oh relax Mr. Fletcher, you'll be fine, you get watch the show, not be a part of it." The mans voice had once again regained that pleasant timbre to it that could almost make you believe he was not an inhuman monster, but only if you had never seen his eyes.

Turning away from the trembling thief, he focused on the prisoners. "Well, what have we here now? A father and son package deal it seems." Turning to the thugs he snapped out "Prepare the boy."

At his command the thugs moved to comply, carefully picking up Draco's chair with him in it and placing it at the center of a runic array carved into the floor. Once it was in place, one of them cut the boys hand and quickly stepped away. At Draco's yelp of pain, Lucius snapped back into reality and was about to yell in protest when the first drops of his son's blood hit the floor.

Unlike the patterns in the businesses, which only drained of minute amounts of energy released by the patrons, this array was designed drain a wizard dry.

Lucius's shout died in his throat as he watched his son start to wither.

Then all hell broke loose.

* * *

On a nearby rooftop Artemis was becoming desperate. Boss neither understood nor cared about his charges age, and was currently sending her against something dangerous. The system had detected a draining grid being activated, the power involved approaching the mass sacrifice of over a hundred people. Something that big would have a lot more than a few thugs guarding it and Minako was headed for it at top speed.

Holding desperately to his perch on her shoulder he tried to advise caution but it was to no avail, the idea of that many people being hurt or killed on her watch would not stand. As they approached the site he decided to change tactics and hoped that whatever god judged mau in the afterlife would simply make his end quick.

"Don't play with them Mina, hit them hard, hit them fast and hit them with everything you've got. There are lives at stake and you cant afford to take it easy on them"

Her grim nod as she set him down on the roof was the only response as she dropped down onto a window ledge to peer inside. Any hope that she might show a modicum of restraint was dashed as he saw the look of fury settle on here features. Her next words were shouted and looked to set the tone of the entire encounter.

"CRESCENT BEAM!"

That she used the actual attack name as opposed to her own (in her opinion much cooler) Venus Death Ray, was a clear statement as to the seriousnes of the situation inside as she followed her attack thru the vaporized remains of the window.

* * *

Lucius was momentarily blinded as a wide beam of yellow light arced down from the rafters striking Danburite in the chest and flinging him like a rag doll across the room. Following it came a witch in what had to be the most ridiculous outfit he had ever see. Ridiculous or not, she was fast, inhumanly strong and apparently in a rage.

She landed just outside the array that was killing his son, reached in, and dragged him clear. That accomplished, she proceeded to lay into the thugs in the room with a vengeance.

A chain, apparently made of hearts, lashed out, grabbing muggles and flinging them about with bone breaking force. One of the flying muggles was even nice enough to clothesline Mundungus as he tried to make his way to the door. The crack of the thief's head hitting the floor, while pleasant to hear worried Lucius for a moment... He wanted a piece of Fletcher for himself, preferably the mans still beating heart.

He was distracted from the melee as a small white cat landed in his lap and spoke to him. "Where are the rest?"

"The rest? The rest of what?" After everything else, a talking cat was simply par for the course.

"The sacrifices! Where are the rest of the victims? The energy spike indicated a mass sacrifice was going on. Where are they? Were we to late?" There was, Aremis realized, something wrong here.

"There were no other victims, just my son."

The cat looked over at the boy in the chair then back at him, then it's eyes opened wide. "You're Magi!"

Then it showed itself to be more than just a talking cat as it morphed into a white haired teenage boy and began to undo the ropes that held him to the chair.

At the far side of the room, Danburite pulled himself from the crate he'd become embedded in and took stock of the situation. While the attack that had struck him had hurt immensely, it also provided him with some much needed answers.

Across the room he could see that the boy had been removed from the array and Artemis of all people was untying the father. Of course, where the meddlesome mau was...

And there she was, throwing the hired help around and generally making a mess of things as usual, tho something seemed a bit off... She seemed smaller somehow... Then it hit him, and with it the maniacal laughter that brought the entire melee to a grinding halt.

"BY SERENITY'S SAGGING TIT'S, THIS IS TO RICH!" Danburites exclamation had the attention of the entire room as he strode forward, apparently unharmed while brushing bits of debris off of his suit. "Does your mommy know your out this late little princess?"

The mocking lilt of his voice instantly grated on Minako's nerves as she stared at the oddly familiar man before her. "The name is Venus, not 'little princess', who the heck are you anyway?" Before he could answer she continued, "Ya know what? I don't really care... CRESCENT BEAM!"

The yellow bolt shot across the room only to splash off of a barrier somewhere in front of the still snickering man, "None of that now little princess, you only get one free shot, anything more, you need to work for." Noting a movement to the side, he realized that the father was now free and had a wand pointed at him, the halves of the walking stick that had contained it now lay at his feet. "Patience magus, patience. I will get to you soon enough. Once I deal with the princess here we can pick up where we left off." Taking note of the unconscious and semi conscious thugs littering the floor he added, "well after my men wake up anyway. Now why don't you take a seat and wait your turn, unless of course you have anything to add to the conversation?"

The Malfoy patriarchs face was a rictus of utter hatred as he stared at the man that had nearly killed his son. "Actually, yes, I do... _**Avada Kedavra**_"

Had he not been almost lost in the utter hatred required for the spell, Lucius would likely have grinned at the look of utter shock on Danburites face as the killing curse did the one thing it was most notorious for and simply ignored the man's shield spell entirely, striking him center mass.

The spell did not snuff him instantly, as it would have a normal human or wizard, it did however react quite violently with the dark energy that suffused his being... One could almost call the combination explosive... Well no almost about that actually. For the second time this evening Danburite found himself first airborne, then becoming quite well acquainted with the inside of a shipping crate. Unlike with Venus's elemental attack however this one tore more that half the dark energy from his body and came far closer to ending his existence than he was willing to tolerate.

Lucius watched in shock as the being, no longer a man for a man would be properly dead at this point, dragged itself out of the remains of the crate it had impacted looking much worse for wear. Snapping its fingers it address the youma in the corner that had remained motionless throughout the entire confrontation. "Kill them all, start with the boy." With that he simply vanished, no crack of apparition, just swirling cloud of what appeared to be flower petals.

Less than a minute later, Lucius discovered that Dung had been wrong when he said the master was more dangerous than the muscle... Dead wrong. He quickly found that the killing curse did little more than piss the creature off, and while blasting and cutting hexes did their jobs, the damned thing healed so damn quickly as to make them useless outside of an extended spell chain. But worst of all, he discovered, was the things single minded dedication to carrying out it's masters last order, in this case the murder of his only son.

Aparating was not an option either with Draco out of it and tied to a chair, tho as the fight wore on, the risk of splinching was becoming more and more acceptable. On top of that, even if he could get out of here he had a feeling that the creature would continue to hunt his son... No, better to destroy it here and now than risk it catching them unawares at a later point in time.

And Merlins beard that girl was a gryffindor born... It was quickly obvious that she was out matched against the youma, yet she threw herself at it again and again with a wild abandon, her constant attacks knocking it back over and over, keeping it from reaching his son, if they lived thru this, he would owe her a debt, that was for sure.

The most frustrating part was that he knew, without Draco here he could likely wear the beast down and destroy it, but one slip up, one spell gone awry could mean the death of his heir so he had to stick to weaker, yet faster spells. What he really needed was some backup... Bella would be handy right about now... While nuttier than a fruitcake, his sister in law was one scary bitch. Hell, an auror or four wouldn't go amiss either, but you know what they say, never one around when you need one. Hell even in the old days they wouldn't show up till... Slowly a rather nasty grin crept across his features.

The witch was looking rather worse for wear after her latest game of 'beat the beast back' and it was becoming more and more obvious that she was wearing down and would likely not last much longer. Catching her attention he motioned her over, "While it recovers, use that speed of yours to get my son out of here"

Even battered and bleeding, barely able to stand, the crazy bint still had the nerve to ask "What about you?" definitely a gryph.

"I have a plan, there will be others arriving soon, get them in here"

Gathering up Draco, chair and all she turned to head out "I hope you know what your doing"

"So do I, " he muttered "so... do... I... _**Morsmorde**_!"


	4. The Hero, The Veteran and The Meddler

Standard Disclaimer Applies

a/n : Moody for some reason comes across in my mind like a crazy old marine DI with a touch of Buford T. Justice's sarcasm thrown in for good measure.

And back to the story!

* * *

In the depths of the ministry, a one eyed one legged grizzled dark wizard beater cursed profusely. He was so damn close, his hand in the floo powder bowl no less, when the alarm went off. Pivoting on his clawed peg leg, he clomped his way to the DMLE central office, muttering dire imprecations the entire way. The report that awaited him when he walked into the office did nothing to improve his mood... Some damn fool had fired off the dark mark... It was gonna be a LONG night.

Casting about, he took int the assortment of wet behind the ears punks and general slackers that were hiding behind one another, hoping He-With-To-Many-Scars picked someone else and let them finish their shift in peace. Worthless, the lot of them... "ALL OF YOU! Gear up and be ready to portkey in 2 minutes! If I'm not getting any sleep, none of you lazy bastards is getting any tonight! MOVE OUT!"

Listening to the moans and groans of the night shift as the scurried to comply raised his spirits a bit. Whoever had fired that spell was in for a world of hurt, and if it was just some drunk fooling around... Well, lets just hope it wasn't, that kind of paperwork was a total nightmare.

Less than 3 minutes had a squad of 15 Aurors primed and ready to move out, just as the coordinates for the port key arrived. "Alright ladies! Some jackass has fired the dark mark over the Camden Town warehouse quarter. We go in first, take down any hostiles fast and hard then get out fast, let the obliviators mop up the mess"

"How do we know who is hostile, sir?"

Moody glared at the punk who was so green his ears still dripped, "If he has a wand and is not an auror then TAKE HIM DOWN! Take no chances ladies, CONSTANT VIGILANCE! Now grab on, portkey leaves in 15 seconds!"

16 seconds later found them outside a muggle warehouse, the glowing skull and serpent of the dark mark hovering over it. Even from where they stood, the could hear the sounds of chanting and spellfire, along with screams no human throat could produce, however instead of hostiles, they were greeted by the sight of two children, one a platinum blond boy who was out cold on the floor, the other a heavily glamoured girl who immediately approached them, weaving a bit.

"Are you the help he signaled for?" she asked with a vague gesture toward the hanging mark, "Hurry up! I don't know if he can last for much longer!" With that the girl was off like a shot, headed inside the building.

Looking from the girls rapidly retreating back to the boy on the ground to the milling and indecisive slackers he had to work with, Moody knew for sure that his long night was just getting started. Grabbing the nearest punk by his collar he practically threw him at what he guessed was the missing Malfoy boy. "Don't just stand there you fool! Get the kid to Mungo's then get Bones on the floo, this is lookin to be a right mess! MOVE! The rest of you, half in front, half around back and try not to get that other kid in the crossfire! Move Out!"

* * *

Lucius was just a tad worried. Once the witch left with his son, the kid gloves had come off. Mere knowledge of some of the spells he was using would get him fined if not incarcerated outright and the damned thing was still moving. Worse still, it was trying to get BY him, not at him confirming his original belief that it would continue to hunt Draco if he left.

The curses were doing their job tho, wearing the beast down bit by bit, the problem was he was fast running out of gas. It had been far to long since he had danced this dance as his ragged breathing and slowed response time attested to quite nicely and it began to dawn on him that he was no longer as young as he used to be.

He was jerked from his ruminations as the beast suddenly changed tactics and he found himself very quickly on the defensive. His son was likely out of range of its senses he realized, it had to be that because the alternative was unthinkable. Shields to block its attacks gained immediate priority over offensive spells as the creature beat him back step by step and it became quite clear that he was not likely to leave here alive.

The yellow bolt that once more drove the beast back was a welcome relief, tho the way the girl was shaking left him sure that it was a temporary relief at best. Squaring his shoulders, he got a better grip on his wand and prepared to make the beast pay dearly for his life.

* * *

Focusing his favorite toy thru the walls, an enchanted false eye he'd taken from the corpse of a dark lord wannabe a few years ago, Moody took stock of the situation inside. Mafoy, it seemed was up to his arsecheeks in trouble in the form of a... thing... nothing he had seen or read described the beast the "former" death eater was fighting. Were it not for the kid next to him, Moody would have been tempted to let the beast finish the job before mopping up the mess, but as it stood, that was simply not an option.

"Listen up! We have one hostile inside, not sure what it is, but it's mean and can take a pounding. Lucius Malfoy and the girl that met us are in there holding it back, but likely not for long. We go in and volley on my mark, hit it with the strongest curses you got. One of you ladies tries a stunner and I'll have you cleaning privy's for a month."

* * *

Even with the girl, it was obvious that this fight was almost over. Her yellow beam attack was faded and barely knocked the beast back any longer and her chain would no longer fully materialize. Not that he was doing any better by a long shot tho. bruised and battered by the few shots that had gotten thru, he could feel the telltale ache of magical exhaustion setting in... It would not be long now.

As much as he disliked the man, Moody's shout of "Hit The Floor!" was an angelic choir at the moment and neither of the two combatants hesitated to comply.

What followed was a veritable rainbow of death and destruction that streaked over their heads as 15 aurors opened up with everything they had and more. Some went for overkill after getting a good look at what they were facing, most went for overkill to avoid Moody's wrath. Regardless, in seconds the beast was rent asunder by spellfire well and beyond it's ability to regenerate.

As the youma collapsed into a pile of dust, Minako pushed herself to her knee's as her senses began to expand from the narrow focus she'd had since the fight began. Till now it had been simple, save the boy and destroy the monster, nothing else had really mattered. The comforting blanket of righteous anger that had shrouded her mind since she saw the boy screaming as his life was drained had finally fallen away, with it went the ability to ignore certain things. Like pain. Lots and lots of pain. Along with the pain was a side helping of exhaustion and a mild case of nausea... Ok, maybe not so mild as her dinner hit the floor... Tho she didn't remember any red sauce with supper... "Artie? Artie, I don't feel so good."

Attempting to stand was not her brightest move as everything went black.

* * *

In the bowels of the ministry there is a department known for it's secrecy, from it's name 'Department of Mysteries' on down it is a riddle wrapped in an enigma. Those that work there reflect this with their hooded cloaks and constant use of code names to hide their identities, even their title 'unspeakables' denotes a Moody level of paranoid secrecy. However, there is one that even the other unspeakables wonder about, one who hides her identity from all including the department heads. Instead of a hooded cloak she uses glamours to blur her features, going so far as to keep her hair an unnatural shade of green. No one had ever seen her leave the thru the entryway, tho all knew she came and went as she pleased, none knew how, it was as if the anti apparition wards simply did not exist for her.

Those that worked in her department were just as secretive, bound by wizard oaths to never reveal what they saw or did under pain of death. All anyone outside of the department knew was that this group had final say on the creation and dispensation of time turners in all of the british isles. The only name any inside or out of her department knew her by was Pluto.

Setsuna Meiu, guardian of time had a lovely corner office in the DoM. Wood panelling, plush carpets and a lot of ass kissing toadies... I mean subordinates who took care of the minor details of her post. No more pausing and running off to deal with some time travelling idiot or other, no need to kill those who stumbled on secrets they did not need, no, for the first time since taking her post at the gates she found she could actually relax for a bit.

Rookwood would never know the favor he had done her by bringing Danburite in several years earlier that planned. In the original timeline, between her focus on Crystal Tokyo and their obsessive need to remain unseen, the wizarding world remained hidden and off of her radar all the way to the very end. When the great freeze came, they were wiped out with the bulk of humanity, only a few surviving to become part of Usagi's kingdom. Thanks to his attack on the wizard Malfoy and the involvement of Sailor Venus, Pluto was now aware of the wizarding world, and it was a resource she intended to make full use of.

Take for example her department, **_The Department of Temporal Management And Defense_**. It was charged with preventing the abuse of temporal magic, ostensibly to keep dark wizards from simply murdering their enemies grandfathers and such to keep them from being born. That this meshed perfectly with her original charter at the gates was no coincidence as she had worked for over a century behind the scenes to get the department created and establish an identity for herself as it's head. Now, instead of worrying over perhaps missing details here and there (like, oh say, an entire global community of reclusive wizards), she had researchers, seers and investigators. Instead of heading out herself to deal with potential threats, she had her own cadre of aurors and hit wizards to deal with the chaff and allow her to focus on the real threats to the future. That all of this was off the global radar and hidden from her enemies by the wizards own paranoid need for secrecy in general was simply icing on her cake.

Add to that, these wizards were oddly clever, using their magic in ways that the magi of the Silver Empire would never had thought of. An example of that was on her wall, a rather fancy clock with nine hands and a myriad of different notations instead of numbers. Each of the hands had planetary symbols on them, and all save 2 were firmly on 'Dormant'. Of the remaining two, the one with Pluto's symbol was on 'At Work', the other, bearing the symbol of Venus was moving from 'Mortal Peril' to 'St Mungos'. Once the hand reached its destination she allowed a slight smirk to grace her lips... It was showtime.

Reaching into her desk drawer she withdrew a folded sheet of parchment, placing it on her desk, she watched and waited.

While many would say that magic made no sense, they would be quite wrong. It operated by it's own rules, even if even those wielding it did not fully understand them. One of the aspects of magic that was most clearly defined by these rules were binding contracts. The contracts were cause and effect at it's most basic, and properly worded could almost seem to operate with a will of their own. Take this contract for example, written and signed in france in 1792, shortly after the peasantry executed their own king. What historians are unaware of is how this affected the french magical community. Dozens of wealthy purebloods were either murdered or fled to avoid being murdered, and while the smart ones simply transferred their gringotts accounts and fled the country, it still meant leaving their lands and oftentimes legacies behind.

One such landowner had vineyards and a winery that had been in his family for generations and the thought of loosing them to rabble was almost unthinkable. Not unthinkable enough to risk the guillotine but still... On the other hand, a guarantee that the lands would be returned to his family in return for a small favor in the future was a risk he was willing to take.

If only Augustine de Malfoy had paid closer attention to the fine print.


	5. The Dust Settles

Insert standard disclaimer here.

And another chapter for your entertainment

* * *

Hospitals, whether magical or mundane have several things in common. They have healers plying their trade, nurses comforting the patients, patients trying to get by and loved ones worrying.

St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies was no different really. Perhaps the decor was a little more Victorian than one would expect in this day and age, the uniforms might seem a bit out of place in a modern setting as well. But, if you closed your eyes and just listened, there was no mistaking this place for anything other than a hospital.

The sixth floor is the secure wing. Here is where those who wave gone far beyond the run of the mill spell damage are taken. When one takes into account the myriad off ways wizards have found to damage themselves and each other on a regular basis, one begins to grasp how bad things have to be to be taken to this wing.

Currently there are only two occupied rooms on this floor. One holds a young girl who is rarely accompanied by less than 3 of the top healers that St. Mungo's has to offer, along with two of the top specialists in esoteric spell damage, one from Germany, the other imported all the way from japan at a nearly prohibitive cost. Let it never be said that a Malfoy does not pay his debts.

The other room holds a young boy with platinum blond hair, unlike the girl, he is awake, on and off, and less than thrilled with his enforced confinement. While his condition is nowhere near as severe, the doctors want to be sure there are no long term effects from his draining.

Along with the boy there is a man, his hair a match for the boys, as is his nervous energy, he paces the floor of the room, muttering imprecations under his breath to keep from waking his son and glaring at the shadows of the two aurors posted outside the room.

Lucius was less than pleased. Moody was a right prick. The senior auror had used his liberal use of unforgivables as an excuse to confiscate his wand as well as have a tracking bracelet placed on his arm. For his own good they said... To keep him from hunting Danburite down and getting hurt they said... Ha! Danburite would take time to deal with, time and proper planning. No, the one they were protecting was that bastard Dung.

Azkaban was to good for that piece of trash, the dementors kiss was far to kind, but that damned Moody used every trick in the book to keep him from the revenge that was his right. First the enforced hospital stay, and while the healers took their time patching him up, the bastard had priori'd his wand and had him labeled a 'person of interest'. Everyone involved knew it would not stand, everyone knew that it would get thrown out of court the minute a judge saw it, but that did not matter. So long as he was under investigation, his right to vengeance was denied, and being that his own hearing was set for an hour after Dung's trial... Damn that meddling bastard anyway...

His musings were cut short by the appearance of an unfamiliar house elf wearing Malfoy livery of all things. The creature had several rolls of parchment in it's arms and spoke to him in french.

_"Greetings Master, Pierre has the harvest and production reports for you"_

Blinking in confusion, Lucius replied in decidedly rusty french. _"Harvest and production for what? And speak english!"_

Switching to english the creature took a closer look at the elder Malfoy. "You no is Master... But you is Master... Pierre is confused Master. These be harvest from vineyards and productions from the winery master. We don't knows why but we's been unable to find you for a very long time Master. We has shrunk what we can, and expanded what we can, but we is being far beyond capacity and in needs of proper bottles Master. If we cannots get some of the wine to market we mays lose some this year and..."

"Enough! We will figure out where you came from later. Give me the reports and bring me a desk and proper chair, if nothing else this will keep me busy for the time being."

The desk the elf returned with seconds later was a work of art. Old polished hardwood, elf buffed to a glasslike veneer, the original Malfoy coat of arms carved into the front in painstaking detail. The chair was also antique, also hand polished with painstaking care and not a speck of dust on either piece. A sniff of the air told of the linseed oil that was hand rubbed into each piece, producing an effect that cleaning spells could only approximate but never match.

Taking a seat, he once again addressed the new elf. "What is your title elf?"

Puffing up in a way that his own useless elf never would Pierre squared his little shoulders as he replied "Pierre is Head Elf for the manor, vinyard and winery Master, as was me father before me and his before him."

"Head elf you say... How many do watch over?"

"There be's 12 elves in the manor, 30 in the fields ands 17 in the winery itself Master. There be's another 42 who is apprenticing in all three but theys dont counts yet."

Momentarily struck dumb the elder Malfoy began opening scrolls and going over the information they contained. As the elf had mentioned, it was an extended inventory list with attached harvest reports. If the wine was any good at all, the numbers here represented a significant boost to his family's stagnant, albeit extensive economic holdings. Combine that with an unprecedented number of house elves including breeders if Pierre's comment about apprentices was to be interpreted correctly, and the Malfoy family had quite suddenly become significantly richer.

"Pierre, fetch me a few samples of our products." Not that he needed a drink or anything, he was just curious about the quality of the wine is all. Really, that was it...

Expecting the elf to return with a few samples of wine, he was understandably shocked when his desktop began to fill with not only wine but brandy, cognac, several liquors and one swirling bottle that he was sure was absinthe. Along with this appeared a cross sampling of glasses of the finest crystal in various sizes and shapes and a basket of bread sliced into bite sized morsels. Next to the desk was Pierre holding a silver bucket.

"Will Master require a spittoon or will master be drinking?"

Blinking in shock, Lucius could only stare for a moment at the myriad of bottles before him, all bearing the Malfoy coat of arms. He was shaken from his reverie by the sound of a throat being cleared from the direction of the doorway.

Startled, he whipped around hand reaching for a wand that wasn't there, never noticing the momentary widening of the house elves eyes. Just as his brain processed that there would be no wand there his fingers brushed a wand holster he knew should not exist and his hand held a wand that he did not recognize. Needless to say it was a rather startled auror who found himself staring down said wand as Lucius's brain finally processed the fact that he was no longer in the warehouse, that the youma was not coming for his son.

Lowering his wand, he realized that the aurors eyes were no longer focused on him, but off to his side. Following the man's gaze he realized that the man was staring down the barrel of the flintlock that the house elf was aiming between his eyes. The creatures hands were rock steady as it tracked the auror's movements with it's weapon.

"Shall Pierre remove this vermin from your presence, Master?" The cold hard edge in the elf's voice would have brought tears of envy to many a pureblood snob's eyes.

"That will not be necessary Pierre, that man is an auror, a law enforcement officer. You may stand down." Not bothering to see if the elf had complied, he turned to address the auror, acting as if a gun wielding house elf were the most common thing in the world. "I do apologize, but after my recent ordeal, I am still a bit jumpy. How can I help you officer?"

Trying to keep the now no longer homicidal house elf in his line of sight, the rather nervous guard took a second to get his bearings.

"T..there is a representative from Gringott's to see you Mr. Malfoy, he claims that it is an urgent matter. Do I have your permission to send him up?"

"Send him up then, this day just keeps getting more interesting... Pierre, bring in a goblin sized chair for my guest and clear all these up save for the cognac."

By the time the goblin entered the hospital room, the desk had ben cleared and stocked with parchment and quills and Lucius looked for all the world like he was in the middle of a day at the office.

Weather the goblin took note of the charade or not, no one could tell, as with the abruptness it's race was known for it came straight to the point.

"Mr. Malfoy, I am Axegrind, a solicitor with the Gringotts backed company of Dewey, Fockam & Howe. In 1792 your ancestor signed a contract binding the Malfoy family to a specific agreement in return for the preservation of his lands and holdings in France. This is said contract. You have been served." Placing the sealed envelope on the desk in front of the Malfoy patriarch, the goblin turned on it's heel and walked out the door, pausing only long enough to add. "Please note that a handling fee of 87 galleons 4 sickles and 6 knuts has been already deducted from your vault, your receipt is in the envelope with the contract and associated paperwork. Good Day."

And with that, it was gone.

"Father, who was that?" Apparently the goblins announcement had woken his son.

"Nothing, Dragon, go back to sleep"

"Not tired no more. When can I go home? I'm bored here, and I feel fine, really I do." The boys voice was starting to approach a whine again... If the healers did not clear him soon, this would not end well for somebody...

Almost as if in answer to his unspoken prayer, the healer in charge of his son chose to enter, and after a baffled glance at the antique chest, informed him that Draco would be clear to leave within the hour.

Relaxing for the first time in days, Lucius broke the seal on the Gringott's envelope. Time to see what his ancestor had signed him up for and why.

* * *

In a seedy bar on the opposite end of London from Diagon Alley and the Ministry, Danburite sat and fumed.

8 days... It had been 8 days since the fiasco with Venus, and in that time, he had gone from being on the cusp of victory to simply being on the run.

Damn that Mundungus anyway, there was a reason he had wanted to avoid the damn magicals. In a little over a week, every front had been found and destroyed, every one of his meticulously cultivated and placed agents had been found and neutralized, each with their memories altered after being milked for all they knew.

AND DAMN THAT PEG LEGGED BASTARD! How did that magi freak of nature keep finding him anyway? Worse, the crazy bastard kept getting closer and closer to preventing his escape via teleportation, that was simply bad form!

And fuck... speak of the devil, new wards going up. Double fuck! The peg legged freak finally got it right, no teleporting out of this one it seemed. Where the hell was the crazy bastard anyway? If escape was not an option, he would at the very least carve out the mans liver, though with the amount of scarring the freak was adorned with, it was just as likely that someone had already beaten him to it.

Drawing his sword, he slowly backed into the nearest corner to limit his exposure, whilst hopefully making the meddlesome magi pay for his interference. That was not to be however as he felt something snap shut around his neck as a voice came from the corner he'd been backing into.

"Like I tell the useless lumps I train and supervise... Constant Vigilance! What kind of a moron doesn't sweep a room for invisible opponents before sitting down? Gimme that," the sword was torn from his suddenly weak grasp and tossed out of his reach as he was forced to his knees while his wrists were shackled.

"That weakness you'r feelin would be the last of your stolen energy bein seperated from your core courtesy of that nifty collar a friend of mine in the DoM whipped up, the cuffs on the other hand are standard issue designed to suppress yer own magic should ya miraculosly figure out how to make it work." Yanking him to his feet, Moody finally removed his cloak allowing the Dark General to see him. "Don't feel to bad, Danny Boy. Dark Wizard, Dark General, you're all the same to me. And Im real good at what I do, which if you hadn't guessed by now, is hunting down trash like yourself"

Gesturing across the room where a rather annoyed quartet sat watching the proceedings, he continued "See them fellows over there? Those would be McNair, Crabbe, Goyle and Dolohov, who, conveniently enough, just got certified as bounty hunters a few days ago. Don't recognize them? Not surprised, but ya did manage to piss off a friend of theirs, a friend with real deep pockets and a real nasty temper. So be nice Danny Boy, 'cause after what you did to his son, I'm thinkin that even dementors would be hard pressed to match what Malfoy would do to you"

Frogmarching his prisoner across the bar, he paused long enough to wave at the table in question. "Better luck next time boys!"

* * *

Lucius wasn't sure how to feel.

On one hand, he was now the owner of a truly massive french villa, with orchards, vineyards, crop fields and more. It came with a small army of house elves who apparently had kept it pristine condition and at full production since his ancestor had fled it during the revolution.

The elves in charge of the french manor had been moved to his the same day Pierre had shown up, and the difference in Malfoy Manor was impressive. While before, Dobby had made do with magic for most of the work and simply did enough to get by, these new elves went above and beyond the call of duty. To them the smallest speck of dust, the slightest imperfection, anything that was not absolutely perfect was seen as the direst of personal insults. That and they were a willful bunch when it came to their duties as Dobby found out to his distress, that and not shy about demonstrating how little they thought of his lack of diligence, usually with violence.

It had taken less than 3 days for Lucius to give in to Pierre's requests and simply give Dobby a sock for his troubles.

The final tally from his Gringott's account manager showed the Malfoy accounts at half again what they had been after the sale of the surplus product the elves had been producing and storing for almost 200 years. During which time, the property had apparently been out of phase with reality, either that or Merlins own fidelis, tho that was impossible as that would require the secret keeper to last that long. Either way, with the winery and distillery both still going at full production, he had a substantial amount of income coming into the vaults as well.

All in all, whoever his ancestor had made a deal with had come through... And now it was time to pay the piper.

He had hoped he could limit his interaction to the witch that had saved them. Pay for her healing, maybe set up a fund for her education, all behind the scenes. She would be taken care of, and none of the pureblood crowd he associated with would know that he owed his life... No not just his... The lives of himself and his heir... That House Malfoy owed a life debt to a muggleborn, a half foreign one at that.

There was no denying it either, he could feel the debt around his core, waiting for her to call it due, even as her personality told him she never would. And then there was the contract...

His ancestor had pledged their family to this, a generational contract that would activate when a certain witches name was recorded in the ministry. Under normal circumstances, a certain meddling old coot was the defacto magical guardian of all muggleborn children that came to light in the UK. This was due to a magical contract of his own that had been signed when he became the headmaster of Hogwarts. Under normal circumstances, Miss Aino's magical guardianship would have fallen into his hands the moment her full name was recorded by the DMLE. These were not normal circumstances, and the contract his ancestor made pre-dated the headmasters birth, let alone his own contract.

For better or for worse, he was Minako Aino's magical guardian, and fully responsible for her induction into the magical world.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was mildly concerned. If the report from St Mungo's was to be believed, then a muggleborn child was in possession of a very dangerous artifact.

According to the report, the girls core had been supercharged, flooding her with enough power to spontaneously create armor and allow her the use of wandless spells to devastating effect. Add to this, the artifact was apparently bound to her in a way the healers could not identify, let alone neutralize.

The amount of power the child would be able to tap would grow as she did, and by the time she was of age for Hogwarts and her core was finally stable, that power would be truly frightening. This could not be allowed. That much power in the hands of a child, especially a muggleborn who neither understood nor appreciated that certain things had to be done for the greater good, simply could not be.

Fortunately, there was a way to fix this. As the girls magical guardian he had the right to use binding rituals on her core, to keep it under control for her own good of course. Once the rituals were enacted, he could take the time to find a way to remove that artifact and place it with someone more responsible who would use it for the greater good of all. While the healers of St Mungo's might feel it was impossible, none of them were Albus Dumbledore.

Taking up a quill, he began to write up a request to the Dept of Magical Children's Welfare to have the girls muggle custody transferred to him as well, stating a clear and present danger to herself and those around her. The poor girls parents would have to be obliviated of course, but this way even if he could not separate her from the artifact, he could at least raise her with a proper appreciation of the greater good. Come to think of it, perhaps a marriage contract with young Ronald would be in order as well, the Weasley's would provide just the right environment for the girl and if control of the artifact was hereditary, this would insure that only the proper people would have access to it.

Yes, there were quite a few angles to be covered here, but first was the issue of custody.

The greater good needed to be served after all.

* * *

Sitting at her desk in the DoM, Pluto chuckled to herself.

The old fools meddling had nearly cost them the world, as the crafty old bugger had actually succeeded in separating Minako's henshin from her core.

Minako Dumbledore was an above average Hogwarts student, a few memory charms leaving her with the impression that her days as a superhero were nothing more than a childhood fantasy and that Albus was her grandfather. Artemis's cryo addled brain was even easier to mold, making him a mouthpiece for Albus's world view, for while the separation had rendered the pen inert it was hoped that Mina's child with Ronald Weasly might inherit it's use, a child that would of course be fully indoctrinated in the ways of the greater good.

All went well, until without the support of Venus, the senshi were just shy of the power needed to overcome Metallia. Usagi, being the hero that she was, decided to give everything to the task and by sheer force of will, accessed her star seed and used it to turn the ginzhoushu into a weapon of mass destruction. The resulting explosion of purification magic had obliterated Metallia and cored out the Dark Kingdom leaving not a single youma in existence.

The Senshi, needless to say, were not reborn.

With no Inner Senshi to oppose them, the Outer Senshi were even more brutal in their efforts to gather the talismans to stop Pharoh90, all for naught. After fighting off her possessor just a little to late, and faced with a world being consumed by darkness, Hotaru Tomoe chose instead to bring the silence and end it all.

Fortunately, that entire corrupted timeline was clipped off thanks to one french aristocrats love for his vineyards, and far too many names Dumbledore was in for a rather rude surprise.

Sitting back in her chair with a glass of Malfoy's Finest brandy, Setsuna congratulated herself on a job well done.

It should be noted however, that Setsuna, while good, was not infallible. Certain details slipped by, mostly because she considered them inconsequential to her plans.

* * *

In the cupboard under the stairs of number four Privet Drive, a friendless young boy suddenly found a friend, and a slightly deranged house elf found it's Master.

* * *

Dun dun dun!

Danger in Durzkaban!

Well at least for the Dursely's...


End file.
